Why Economics at URI?

Whether your goal is a career in finance, public policy, law, education, or any one of a number of other fields, economics provides a solid foundation for understanding how society functions. And your future prospects look bright, as surveys of college graduates show that the starting salaries of economics majors are among the highest for all business and social science degrees.

URI Economics majors with Fed Chair Janet Yellen and URI President David Dooley

As an undergrad, we’re focused on you.

Unlike many other schools, nearly all of your courses will be taught by full-time faculty (rather than graduate students or TAs). You will learn directly from experts, many of whom have won prestigious teaching awards. And with about 150 majors and 12 full-time faculty, our department is big enough to offer you choices, but small enough to give you the personal guidance you need.

Major options.

As an Economics major at URI, you can choose from three unique degree programs: a Bachelor of Arts, a Bachelor of Science in Applied Economics, and a Bachelor of Science in Economic Theory and Methods. So whether you are into solving math problems or social problems (or both), we have a program for you.

Our degrees go with everything.

Let’s face it, the economy is related to just about everything. About a quarter of our students are double majors, pairing up with a variety of disciplines from pharmacy to political science to languages. So if you’re thinking of combining your degree with another major, or minoring in Economics, we not only allow it, we encourage it.

Research.

Our students have the opportunity to collaborate with faculty on meaningful research projects, both domestically and abroad, to help tackle economic issues and further our discipline. Whether the issue concerns local economic development, poverty in sub-Saharan Africa, educational attainment in the United States, the health care economy, workers’ rights, or the history of economic thought, we are at work surfacing the latest knowledge.